MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. – State health officials have confirmed patients at three Metro Detroit pediatrician’s offices may have been exposed to tuberculosis. A healthcare associate working at those offices was unknowingly infected.
Due to privacy reasons state health officials only confirm that the associate diagnosed with pulmonary TB is receiving treatment and is not currently working. All other associates and providers at the practice have been tested and do not have active TB disease.
The healthcare worker was ill with TB and worked at Lakeview Pediatrics and its Ascension Medical Group Michigan locations in Macomb Township, Rochester and St. Clair Shores. Anyone who may have been exposed is encouraged to get tested.
READ: Tuberculosis exposure being investigated at southeast Michigan physician practice locations
The news is disturbing for many families that visited the locations where that employee had been working. Ascension has set up a call center to set up tests and answer questions.
Ascension Medical Group said it has sent out emails and letters to parents of patients with instructions on how to proceed if they may have been exposed to TB. The window of exposure goes from April of last year to Jan. 9 of this year.
Patients are encouraged to check their email, spam folder and mailbox for an alert from Ascension Medical Group. Those alerts will have information on how to get a blood draw and TB test for free.